Raising Emma
by Snow Whitex Prince Charming
Summary: To ensure that the curse doesn't break and to inflict pain upon her worst enemy Regina takes Emma and raises her as her own Ouat Au
1. Chapter 1

Regina had every faith that her curse would succeed; the only fatal flaw in her otherwise perfect plan was the pesky matter of the savior. The one thing that could reverse the curse to end all curses was an infant.

To Regina it sounded ridiculous, even so, Regina would just have to do away with that little problem and then no one would be able to stop her from getting her revenge on Snow White.

Reclining comfortably in her carriage, Regina watched her stepdaughter give birth through a silver hand mirror.

A wicked smile tugged at The Evil Queen's crimson lips, she relished every scream of agony coming from Snow White, and reveled in the knowledge that she was to inflict even more pain upon her stepdaughter once she reached the castle.

By the time Regina had arrived the mirror had shown her that Snow White had already delivered a baby girl. With not a trace of her mother in her, the baby was a runt of a thing with pale blonde hair.

Calling for her guards, Regina relayed her orders.

"Do what you must but leave the infant, she's mine." Without another word the guards stormed the castle their queen at their heels, watching the destruction of Snow White's life unfold with eagerness.

After following a trail of corpses, the queen finally came upon the royal nursery. Every available surface seemed covered with toys, all waiting for a child that would never get to play with them.

One of her knights stood over the body of Snow White's husband, his eyes slowly starting to lose the light in them. Her huntsman stood by the door with a bundle of white wool in his arms.

"Your Majesty, the child." He said placing the bundle in Regina's arms, the child fussed a little but did not cry. Something Regina felt odd; didn't she know who Regina was? This was the savior sent to destroy her curse, yet the baby had no qualms about the woman who was now holding her.

Regina glanced over to shoot a scathing remark at the child's father, but his eyes had already closed forever.

"Go make yourselves useful!" Regina snapped at her guards, who hurried off like beaten dogs. She turned to the Huntsman who was waiting for his orders like an obedient pet. "Go stand guard, Huntsman I wish to be alone with the child,"

"What will you do to her?" The huntsman asked, which only invoked Regina's ire.

"Never you mind what I'll do with her go to your post!" Regina snapped causing the baby to cry.

Defeated, the huntsman slunk off to his post, leaving the child alone with her captor. Wailing child in hand, Regina began to pace the room trying to find the best way to inflict pain on Snow White, and to do away with the little nuisance,

"Will you be quiet!" Regina snapped when several minutes had passed and she had no way to dispose of the child and the crying had not yet ceased. "I am trying to plot your demise you little urchin, not shut up!" The stern tone had some effect on the baby who seemed to get the message and quieted almost immediately.

"There, now what do with you?" Regina wondered out loud, at that moment she could hear the pained sounds of someone coming towards the room. And with no time to think of anything else, retreated to the shadows.

A few moments passed befor Snow White, obviously in a lot of pain, much to Regina's joy stumbled into the nursery. Upon seeing her husband's dead body she cried out.

"No, no! No! No! No! Please…" She cried as she fell to her knees at his side. "Please come back to me." In a desparate attempt to revive him she kissed him twice, which made Regina role her eyes.

"Oh, don't worry dear. In a few moments, you won't remember you knew him, let alone loved him." Regina said stepping forward from the shadows, the baby still in her arms. S

"Why did you-" Snow White paled when she saw what Regina was holding in her arms, "No, Emma!" Staggering to her feet, Snow tried to take the baby from her stepmother, who jerked her away before she could lay a hand on her.

"So that's what you named her, _Emma._ " Regina said as Snow watched helplessly from the ground, "of all the names you could have picked, it's not awful."

"Regina let her go!" Snow begged, "do whatever you want to me but leave Emma alone!"

"Now why would I do that?" Regina asked, "she is my undoing."

"She's a child!"

"Children grow up," Regina's words were icy, "and children lie."

"I was ten I didn't know-"

"It doesn't matter!" Regina said tired of hearing the same speech from her stepdaughter time and time again. "I've been trying to figure out the best way to do away with this little problem, but I think I have my answer, the best way to ensure my safety and to hurt you the most is to take your child. There is no greater pain than the loss of a child." Even as she spoke the plan was forming in her head, if she raised Emma as her own she could teach the girl to hate Snow White that would just be salt in an open wound.

Snow was begging again, but Regina paid her no mind, the woman obivously was far too weak from childbirth and the hard trek here to fight Regina for the baby, she was helpless to what was going to happen.

Just the way Regina liked her.

"Why are you doing this?" Snow White asked through tears, Regina smiled at this and answered coldy.

"Because this is _my_ happy ending." Snow held her head up bravely, locking her eyes on Emma with determination.

"Then I swear, no matter where you go, Regina, no matter how you try to conceal her, I will find Emma. I will _always_ find her."

"We'll see about that," Regina said as the curse bore down on them, ceiling breaking apart, winds whiping through the room with furocity.

"Where are we going?" Snow yelled over the wind's screams,

"Somewhere horrible. Absolutely horrible. A place where the only happy ending will be mine." The windows shattered, dark smoke filling the room, suffocating everything, and they are whisked away.

The world Regina woke up in was vastly different from the one she had left, here she was no longer a queen but the mayor of a small town. As she opened her eyes for the first time she recalled all of this. Looking out of the window, she gazed upon the town of Storybrooke and celebrated that her curse had worked,

"I did it. I won." Regina said almost gleefully to herself, before a small cry sounded from the nearby bassenet.

The spoils just got better and better.

"Hello, Emma" Regina smiled picking the baby up, the tiny blonde's eyes opened to reveal Snow White's pale green eyes. _So there was at least one trace of her mother in her._

Emma looked upon Regina for a long moment with those unyeilding green eyes, and then Emma let out an ear peircing wail.


	2. Chapter 2

The crying didn't stop for two weeks,Emma cried all day everyday. And nothing Regina did could stop it. She had tried everything, singing to Emma, feeding Emma, her diapar was dry and the warm bath she had drawn thinking it was colic did nothing but anger Emma further.

Regina was at her wits end, she was trying to get some work done at the kitchen counter, but couldn't focus due to Emma's continuous cries. With a frustrated sighed Regina got up and crossed to the bassinate where Emma lay screaming her head off.

"Emma. Emma, I promise if you just tell me what you want, I'll do anything for you. Anything!" She scooped Emma up and tried to bounce her wailing daughter in an attempt to soothe her, "please, give me a chance." But Emma would not be persueded, she continued to scream and cry for all the world to hear.

Frustrated, Regina decided that a walk was in order,

"Alright, Emma we're going to Granny's, maybe the fresh air will get you to calm down." Regina said bundling Emma up and putting her in the stroller.

* * *

Once arriving at Granny's with no end in Emma's screams Regina took her normal seat at the counter.

"Who is this bundle of joy?" Asked Granny who was wiping down the counter. Regina looked up obviously annoyed,

"Do you have a problem with her crying?"

"No, of course not." The elderly woman said slightly intiminated, Regina tried to calm Emma down, pushing the stroller back and forth.

"Shhh. Okay, it's time to be quiet now. It's time to be quiet." Turnning back to her plate of food, she saw Granny is still standing over her. "What?!"

"Do you want some advice? Try a story." Granny said before walking off, Emma continuing to cry loudly. _Maybe she's sick,_ the thought made her hearts constrict, _yes of course she's sick! It all makes sense, and it would be just like Snow White to ruin my happy ending, this is somehow her fault, she's the reason that Emma is sick and might possibly die._ Slapping a twenty down on the counter Regina gathered up her belongings and hurried to the hospital.

* * *

At the hospital, Emma's heartbeat is examined by Dr. Whale with a stethoscope, yet her crying persisted.

"Well, her heart is as strong as a locomotive, and her lungs are healthy… clearly." He said wincing as Emma's cried raised an octive.

"Well, what about a blood test, or a chest x-ray?" Regina asked anxiously, the doctor's snort of derision was answer enough.

"It's obvious what the problem is. She's a crying baby." Anger flickered in Regina's eyes,

"No, she has to be sick!" Regina cried, "she has to be it's the only explination!"

"Madam Mayor, I can't find anything wrong with your daughter, but I could prescribe you something." He pulled aside the curtain, "ten cc of maternal love." He nodded at Regina and went to make the rest of his rounds, but Regina followed him, determined. "Dr. Whale. No one loves their child more than me. Which means there is something is wrong with Emma. Your job is to help her. Do it!"

"Sure, I can order additional testing, but with babies, there are risks. And-"

"What could more tests tell us?" Regina interuppted.

"Well, in some cases, there could be something abnormal happening. But we'd need to test the baby's DNA to find out…"

"Test her DNA, what would that prove?" Regina asked, she didn't want to listen to the man's excusses as to why he couldn't fix Emma.

"Well, it can show us who your relations are, it can show who the father is, but most important, it could tell us if she has something wrong at the genetic level." Regina paled, she couldn't let them test Emma's DNA, then it would be revealed that she wasn't Emma's mother and her plan would be ruined! The entire town thought Regina was Emma's birth mother thanks to the curse, and Regina needed to keep it that way.

"So you're saying this is _my_ fault?" The former Evil Queen cried vexed,

"You misunderstand me, Regina. If something were in fact wrong with the baby, maybe there's something in your medical records, something genetic that could be causing the problem. Look, the only people we can help us fill the blanks are you and the biological father." Whale tried to explain calmly,

"No! You're blaming me," Regina snarled, "and yet you refuse to help my daughter!" Angrily she gathered up the still sobbing Emma and her belongings and stormed out.

She hadn't made it far when she slammed into a slight waif of a figure.

"Oh, Madam Mayor!"

Snow White stood before her looking thoroughly afraid for once in her life, yet Regina could not enjoy her fear.

She could however intimidate her further.

"Ms. Blanchard, would you please watch were you are going?" The Queen snapped as Emma let out a sob. Attracking her birthmother's attention.

"Who's this?" She asked, Regina could not resist flaunting Emma over her.

"Meet Emma, my daughter."

"Emma?" A moment of vague recognition flicked over Mary Margaret's face, and then it passed, "what a beautiful name." She reached out towards Emma, but Regina pulled away,

"Don't touch her!" Emma's crying increased with renewed vigor.

"I was only trying to say hello," Mary Margaret simpered, Regina considered giving her rival an nasty retort, _but I suppose it would hurt much more to let her interact with her lost daughter and be never the wiser._

"My mistake," Regina said slapping a sticky sweet smile on her face. Hesitantly, Mary Margaret reached out towards Emma who's crying quieted as she grasped the woman's finger, Regina stared amazed.

"How did you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Make her stop crying." Emma was so young there was no way she could know that Mary Margaret was her real mother.

"Well, I'm just talking to her." The young brunette smiled, "She's so sweet." Regina moved to take Emma back, causing the infant to choke out a cry, which turned into a wail when she tried to bounce her in her arms.

"No. No, no, no." Regina cried dismayed, _she hates me, Emma hates me what should I do?_

"I'm so sorry. I didn't... did I do something wrong?" Mary Margaret asked fear in her voice.

"No. No, you didn't…" Regina said still to dismayed over Emma's hatred of her to think poorly of her former stepdaughter. "…It's me."

Without another word she hurried off towards her mansion, she had to find a way to make Emma love her if she were to succeed in protecting her curse.


	3. Chapter 3

Once arriving home Regina put Emma down in her bassenet, grabbing the baby monitor, she hurried down stairs to think.

The survival of her curse depended upon Emma's love, if Emma hated her the curse would break in twenty-eight years just as that little imp Rumplestilskin had prophicized.

Emma kept on crying, making Regina's head throb, _if only she'd shut up for one minute so I could thnk!_

All she had to do was think, she needed Emma to love her, her curse and her life depended on it. If she couldn't get the girl to love her then it would make her so much easier to kill after the curse was broken.

 _I need her love, how can I make her love me?_ It seemed there was nothing Regina could _physically_ do to please Emma. _But what if I don't have to do something physical?_ There were other ways to procure love.

Spells and poitions and… _a love potion that's it!_ She had all the ingreedients in her vault to make a love potion! If she fed it to Emma regularly, she could ensure Emma's love for the rest of her days!

Hurrying up the stairs two at a time, Regina picked up the still screaming Emma and put her back in her stroller.

"Come on, Emma, we're going to my vault."

* * *

The inside of the vault was dry and cool, the perfect place to store magical objects. Gathering what she needed to make her love potion Regina got to work, ignoring Emma's unhappy cries all the while.

As the potion boiled away, Regina attended to Emma.

"Alright, Emma, time for a story… Once upon a time, there was a Queen and she cast a glorious curse that gave her everything she wanted. With this new curse in place she was the most powerful being in the world. She had her revenge on her worst enemies, and she had a beautiful baby girl as her princess. By all accounts they should have been happy, and lived happily ever after for the rest of their days. Unfortunately, all was not happy in their little kingdom. The princess, was angry with The Queen, and refused to give The Queen what she wanted more than anything in the world. _Love._ "

As she spoke Regina fetched a few crystaline vials from a nearby shelf and devided the still simmering potion into them. "The Queen was worried that the princess would hate her forever. While she knew she could give the princess everything the little girl's heart ever disired, she also knew she couldn't raise the girl if there was hate in the child's heart." Emma whined slightly, "No, she needed to help her child love her first. And so, the Queen procured an ancient potion of love."

To this Emma let out a worried cry. "Oh, it's all right." Regina soothed,

"If the princess drinks the potion, she won't be harmed, she will only feel love and admiration for The Queen." Plucking a few hairs from her head and wincing slightly, Regina added them to each vial making the potion glow a vibrant pink.

"And with the hatered gone, she and The Queen can indeed finally live happily ever after." Corking the remaining vials Regina fixed Emma a bottle and added a single drop of the potion to it.

"Alright, Emma… it's time for a bottle," picking up the crying child Regina craddled her in one arm, while feeding her with the other. At first Emma protested but finally she took to the bottle guzzling it down as if she were starving and on the edge of death.

"That's a good girl," Regina praised as she watched Emma drink from the bottle. She watched as the potion took hold of the tiny creature in her arms. "That's my beautiful girl, good girl, Emma. Good girl!" Once Emma had finished her bottle, Regina set it aside.

Emma stared up at her for a moment, her face blissfully relaxed. Overjoyed, Regina lifted Emma to her shoulder and patted Emma's back gently until she burped. Once burped Emma came out of her stupor and cooed happily.

Regina could not restrain her smile as she pulled back to look at her prize. Who looked back up at her with love and adoration, instead of hate. She even offered Regina something rare and precious.

 _A smile._

"Hello, Emma." Regina said holding her up, "what shall we do today?"


End file.
